IFA President reports from World Forestry Congress

The IFA hosted a side event meeting of professional forestry associations at the World Forestry Congress being held this week at Buenos Aeries, Argentina.  The meeting was held on Tuesday 20 October, at the instigation of IFA President Dr Peter Volker.

Peter Volker reports:

‘The meeting went well, there was strong support for international collaboration among associations.  The problem we need to face is how to fund and co-ordinate it.  We had attendees from Latin America (number of national and provincial associations), Germany, UK, USA, British Colombia, Bangladesh, South Africa, NZ and Australia. 

All who attended were in agreement that foresters had been marginalized in the climate change and carbon debate and we need to claim back some ground.  This could be done by utilising our network to make sure we are represented at important international meetings - perhaps using local or nearby representatives to keep costs down.  It was also discussed that perhaps we need to be a bit more catholic about how we define membership of the forestry profession in an age where many professionals are becoming more specialised.’

A full report of the meeting will appear in the December issue of The Forester.

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